Great police work, despite the sad outcome

While the nation has been transfixed by the disappearance of the late Gabrielle Petito, one thing has been overlooked: the excellent police work of the Moab police officer who interviewed her and her boyfriend, Brian Laundrie, on August 12, after getting a report of possible domestic violence.

Now that Gabrielle’s corpse has been found, I’m sure that Officer Daniel Robbins feels he could have/should have/might have done something differently. But I don’t see what.

In interviewing Gabrielle and her fiancé, separately, Officer Robbins was at all times polite, professional, caring, understanding: everything you might hope for from a top-notch family therapist, much less a police officer.

I feel compelled to report this because police officers have gotten some bad press recently — often for good reason. As a reporter and editor at daily newspapers for 16 years, and another 16 years reporting and editing for this legal news service, I’ve had almost daily contact with officers and police chiefs for three decades. And despite the tragic outcome of this incident, I’d like to nominate Mr. Robbins for Officer of the Year.

The 8-minute-and-36-second video in the link above shows Officer Robbins pulling over the van for going 45 in a 15 mph zone, and hitting a curb, “possibly intoxicated,” he says.

After the stop, he politely asks Gabby to step outside, then cheerfully asks, “What’s going on?”

Gabby, obviously upset, in tears, proceeds to, in effect, indict herself for acting with violence toward her fiancé, the driver. Officer Robbins lets her speak for quite some time, then says, kindly: “You’re not in any trouble. Take a breath. Relax a little, but you’re not in any trouble.”

By now backup has arrived. Officer Robbins lets Gabby step away, protected by backup, and interviews the driver, Brian Laundrie, starting with: “You want to tell me about those scratches on your face?”

Brian seems much more composed than Gabby. Officer Robbins asks: “Can I see your hands? Oh, I see you’ve got a scratch right here.” His backup then finds other scratches on Brian.

Starting at around 5:30 on the dashcam tape, Officer Robbins explains that he’s not going to charge either of them with even a misdemeanor, and why. “I’m not going to cite you for domestic violence,” he says. He tells Brian he could charge Gabby with domestic violence, and what would ensue.

“So, this is what I’m going to do,” Robbins says at 7:06, Gabby still in tears, “I’ve decided I am not going to cite you for domestic violence, battery, OK? It was only going to be a Class B misdemeanor.”

He continues: “You’re 22, right?” Gabby tearfully nods. Officer Robbins tells her, “I’m choosing not to cite you … because it would be a major pain in the butt.”

“So you are not going to be charged with anything,” he tells Gabby, again. “But this is what I do have to do. I am separating you.” He explains why he wants them to spend “tonight away from each other: Relax, breathe.”

Then he tells Gabby, still in tears: “I understand that this can seem like a nightmare, but you’re going to come out of it with a golden flower on top of you.”

Man — what a guy.

Then he tells Gabby that she gets the van for the night, and he’ll take Brian to a hotel, nearby. But “I want you guys to stay away from each other, for both of you guys the same.”

So tell me what, if anything, Officer Robbins did wrong.

He did nothing wrong. This was police work at its best.

He came in the middle of a premarital spat and did his best with two strangers, one of whom was speeding, in a van.

Now, you may say: “Yeah, but how would he have treated them if they were Black? Or Mexican?”

And I reply: I don’t know, and neither do you, and I don’t give a damn. Officer Robbins did what he did, and I don’t see how he could have done any better. I think Officer Robbins is a great cop. I wish we had more like him.

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